


After the Tribulations

by ljs



Series: Tribulations [1]
Category: Sleepy Hollow (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Future Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-17
Updated: 2016-05-17
Packaged: 2018-06-08 22:43:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,075
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6877408
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ljs/pseuds/ljs
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Assume that the story diverged from canon in late Season 3. Assume that the Witnesses beat all seven years of Tribulations. Assume domesticity and spinach lasagna. </p><p>But Crane needs a villain. Abbie has an idea.</p>
            </blockquote>





	After the Tribulations

“Mum, Daddy needs a villain!”

Abby, briefcase under one arm and mail under the other, bent down to kiss her yelping little bundle of joy. Little Grace Margaret, eyes like her mother’s and mouth and mind like (oh God) her father’s, kissed back and then spun around, her makeshift cape flying. “I’ll fly and find Daddy a villain if you can’t find one, Mummy.”

“I’ll help, I’ll help.” This came from little Gus Corbin, who stumbled into view from the living room, tripping on his own cape. “Aunt Abbie, I’ll help Gracie.”

“You do that, punkin,” Abbie said, trying not to laugh. “Where’s your Uncle Crane?”

“Daddy’s in the sun room,” Grace said, before Gus could even begin. “He was watching us play through the glass, so we were perfectly safe, but he said we were too loud to endure and he had to flee.” Her imitation of her dad was perfect.

“And Uncle Crane was saying bad words to his laptop, I could see his mouth move, but we couldn’t hear him,” Gus volunteered. “Because of the glass.”

“Best informants ever,” Abbie murmured. She kissed her nephew’s head and then her daughter’s again, just because, before they ran off again. “Baby girl, did Daddy make dinner?”

“It’s ready in the oven, and we already set the table,” Gracie said. “Special ’sagna and garlic bread. Gus and I, we made antipasti. We’re…ssomething chefs, Daddy said.”

“Sous, sous, sous! And can I stay for dinner, Aunt Abbie?” Gus abandoned his play and wrapped his arms around Abbie’s legs. “Mom’s making something with vegetables. I don’t like vegetables.”

“There are vegetables in Uncle Crane’s lasagna, punkin,” Abbie said. “Pretty sure it’s full of spinach.”

“Nuh-uh. It’s too good for vegetables,” Gus said firmly – _just_ like Jenny back in the day, Abbie thought – and then marched off, his little cape flying.

“Wait, Augustus, the demons will get you ‘less I protect you!” Gracie shouted, and then bolted after him. Something glittered on her wrist – oh Lord, the girl had taken the bracelet from Arizona, which wasn’t a bracelet but an artifact of power, the one that had burned out during the fifth tribulation. Gracie had been rooting around in Abbie’s jewelry case.

Or, more likely, her daddy had let her play with it. Crane was the best father there ever could be, but he had a tendency to indulge his precious daughter. Of course, it wasn’t like the pregnancy had been easy, coming in the midst of the seventh tribulation, and he’d confided later to Abbie that he hadn’t thought they’d make it through to have their sweet girl, but anyway.

Abbie dumped her briefcase on the chair designated for “Mummy’s Sheriff stuff” (Gracie’s term) and went off in search of her husband –

Who was indeed in the sun room, sitting on the couch frowning down at the laptop on his knees. As soon as Abbie made the doorway, however, he looked up. The loving smile in his eyes warmed Abbie’s heart, as it always did. “How goes the day, Sheriff?”

“Good guys won, mostly,” she said. “Don’t get up, I’m coming over there.”

He scooted over just a bit, enough so that when she sat down she was snuggled into his warmth. As he started to move the laptop, she put her hand over his. “What are you working on?” she said, after he’d kissed her hello, warm and just a bit naughty, just what she liked best after a long day of law enforcement struggles.

“New novel idea. My agent wrote and asked for something more in the Witness series,” he said. “But, well…”

“You need a villain. Gracie said.”

“Yes. Our heroine Charity needs a worthy foe this time, but also an adversary who’ll be a proper foil for our hero Bird.” He kissed her again, smothering her chuckle. The first time he’d come up with the character names for his paranormal series, she’d laughed for hours. Subtle her man wasn’t. “It seems bad form somehow to use one of our adventures as fodder for the literary fire, but that does eliminate a fair number of options for evildoers.”

“I know. You can always choose a television executive,” she murmured against his shoulder.

Without dislodging her, he bristled. “Those vile creatures. They’re too loathsome to contemplate for fiction. They didn’t deserve Charity.”

Eyes closing, she laughed even as she brushed a kiss on his neck. He’d been so funny, back when those TV guys had tried to option his first couple of novels. She’d been nursing Gracie at home and dealing with a (perfectly human, if still horrible) serial killer in Westchester County, so he’d gone off to Los Angeles alone for the meetings – which had led to his having a perfectly articulated raging meltdown at the studio’s plans to alter his characters and yanking back his rights to his stories.

“Those people couldn’t comprehend a proper character arc if it bit them on the arse,” he said crossly. “But that’s a mundane sort of evil. I need something epic.”

Still laughing, she held on tighter. “You’ll think of something, babe. Hey, you can go to the Archives tomorrow and look in the files for inspiration.”

“Regrettably, no. It’s my turn to take cupcakes to Grace’s class. I am homeroom father all this fortnight.”

“My life,” Abbie said, almost to herself. “This is my life.”

“What was that, Sheriff?” Crane said, his breath on her ear, his hand on her thigh. “Something to share?”

She turned to smile up into those blue eyes she loved. “Oh, I’ve got a little something to share with you, Crane. Wait til we’re in bed tonight, though.”

He took her mouth in a biting kiss, just how she liked it. And she’d have pursued it a little further, but –

“Doorbell,” she murmured against his lips.

“Madam Jenny and Master Corbin,” he said, in just the same way. “Perhaps they can take the children for the evening. Jenny owes me for this afternoon’s babysitting of Augustus.”

After one more kiss, she pulled away. “Sorry, babe, dinner first. I’m starving. Hear spinach lasagna’s on the menu.”

As he shut down his laptop, he smiled at her. “Whatever you desire, Abbie.”

And while the voices of her daughter and nephew rose to meet her sister and brother-in-law’s, while she was still snuggled into her man’s warmth, she thought, this is pretty much it.

This was her life. This was her reward.


End file.
